American Warrior
by JustLivingToLive
Summary: This story follows the day to day survival of the mentally unstable John Brody who acts on a constantly changing depression with occasional bouts of suicidal thoughts. Often this biopolar behavior results in the annoyance of his fellow survivors however they acknowledge his military know how and put up with his jack— behavior. My first story with the use of my OC!
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"Brody! Brody wake up! Wake up! Wake up damn it!"

John Brody bolted up from his sleep to see private Ryan Monroe at the end of his bed pulling on a pair of boots as he hobbled towards the door exiting the barracks.

"What the hell is going on Monroe!"

"Oh man, the shit has really hit the fan this time. Somehow they got in."

"What, who got in?!"

"What do you think got in?! The dead got in!"

John's pupils dilated in surprise and before he had a chance to respond Monroe was out the door ready to defend what remained of Fort Irwin.

Now alone in the barracks John jumped out of bed and began throwing on his uniform. Before he even had his uniform zipped he grabbed his Beretta 9mm and rushed out the door as Monroe had.

He ran out to the courtyard and came out into a world of chaos with men in uniform shouting and shooting in all directions trying to stop the flow of dead that came out of the darkness of night through the main entrance. It was hell on Earth and soon John watched as his fellow soldiers became overwhelmed and were devoured by the horde of undead.

Soon the legion of dead was coming for him. The fifteen rounds his Beretta held sure wasn't going to cut it so John made a dash for the C building where the Armory was. John sprinted through the empty halls of C building only turning to empty his bullets into the dead that pursued him through the building. He watched as his inaccurate bursts of gun fire ripped through their bodies and did nothing to stop them.

He reached the armory with less than fifty feet of distance between him and the hundreds of flesh craving monsters. He threw the doors open and shut and locked them behind him. His eyes panned across the room that should have been loaded with weapons but instead saw the empty lockers and boxes that once held those weapons. Not even a single bullet was left behind by whoever had ransacked the armory before their departure.

John turned back around to unlock the doors again and attempt to escape but was halted when the doors rattled from the weight and force of the dead piled outside seeking to kill him. John slowly stepped away from the doors and backed into the farthest corner of the armory. He slumped against the wall and lowered himself to the ground. He lifted his Beretta and pulled out the clip to check his ammo. One bullet. One Bullet to end this now he thought.

"No," he spoke aloud. "I'll bide my time before I do that. I'll wait three days for an opening to get out. I'll wait the first and the second but on the third...on the third I'll blow my brains out."

Suddenly the room went dark and light no longer illuminated from under the doors.

"Huh, damn generators ran out of fuel." He thought allowed.

For some reason John was amused by this inconvenient fact that piled onto the ones he already had. The more he thought about it the more amusing it seemed. Suddenly John found himself irrationally laughing hysterically.

"Hah...hah...ha!ha!ha!ha! It's only been a few minutes in here and just look at me! I'm a damn lunatic! How am I going to last three days without killing myself?! What the hell am I even waiting for?! If I don't get out soon I'm fricking screwed!"

**Hope you enjoyed this prologue and tell me if your excited for the chapters to come that will introduce you to more characters and backstory!**

**Please take note that any locations referenced such as fort Irwin are not the same as the real thing while some will be if that makes sense.**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry if this is full of grammatical, punctuation, of spelling mistakes. Kinda did this on a fly.**

**I hope you enjoy where our story truly begins!**

Alexander cautiously approached the door which read armory that was surrounded by the dead. Once he got within ten feet from them he could smell their rotting flesh and see the decaying parts of their body, some with large chunks of flesh and limbs barely attached dangling around. He clearly heard their animal like moans of pain or sorrow or whatever it was that the dead felt. He then pumped his shot gun slowly.

Alerted to his presence now by the sound they slowly turned their heads ready to begin approaching him. Before the closest one could make a single step he pulled the trigger and blew a clean hole in the dead ones head. He pumped the weapon once again and shot the next one clean in the head for a second time and in only a few seconds of pumping his shot gun and blasting away the way to the door was cleared.

It was silent for a few moments as smoke flowed out of the end of the barrel. He then raised the gun with one arm and began reloading shells with his other. After he had finished loading all the shells into his trench gun he walked forward out of the shadows of the hall.

The thick brown but greying hair on Alexander's head glistened in the sun light. Even the hair on his lip and chin in the form of a handle bar mustache and goatee shined in the light. He was an older man in his sixties with wrinkles on his face that gave him a wise appearance and calloused skin and that showed he had been through much in life. All of these features which would normal be thought to make a person look unattractive only made him look wiser and gave him a kind appearance that could only draw you closer to him.

After he had emerged from the shadows with his newly reloaded weapon from which the smoke had finally cleared and the last of it had dissipated into the air he strolled casually up to the armory doors and attempted to open them.

When he found it was locked he stepped back and swung his leg upward and thrust it forward uncoiling all the strength in his leg breaking the door open letting what little light that was in the halls shine into the armory which was pitch black. The old man peered into the room seeing only empty gun racks and a few stray empty bullet casings that lay across the floor of which he had no use for.

Just as he made one final sweep of the room with his eyes and was ready to turn back he noticed something in the corner of his eye as he was turning. He then turned back in the direction of what he had seen and looked down and saw only a shadow figure that he could not make out but knew was the silhouette of a man.

He stared only a few seconds more trying to determine whether or not this figure sitting in the corner with its head down was a dead straggler that had been locked in here. Just as he was considering bashing it's head in to be sure he wasn't one of living dead the shadow figure lifted it's head.

"Oh shit!"

The elderly man immediately swung up his Winchester model 12 trench gun ready to fire. Suddenly the bodies right hand flew up and he grabbed the end of the barrel.

"Wait I'm...I'm not one of...them." John rasped from dehydration.

After speaking up to defend himself John slipped back into a half conscience state letting his hand slide off the barrel of the gun. Once Alexander's tension eased he bent down and wrapped his arm around the man pulling him up and out of the armory.

Now in the brighter but still dim surroundings of the hall he could now see that John was in a US army private uniform and appeared to be in his thirties with short black hair and facial hair coming in.

As he walked along dragging the man with one arm and still holding his trench gun with the other he slowly started to see him regain somewhat of his senses and he started to move his legs independently. As they drew closer to the end of the hall and to another door the soldier finally started to open his eyes more and lift his head.

"Hey boy?" Alexander said gently, "What were you doing in there?"

He waited a moment and received no response.

"What's your name?" he asked gently.

He once again received no response. He waited a moment more before resuming.

"Hey boy...did you hear me? I asked what your na- " he started but was interrupted by John.

"John Brody. Who the hell are you?"

"Alexander Smith."

Lifting his head higher John saw the small smile on Alexander's face and had to look away to avoid his infectious positive attitude. As they came even closer to the door at the end of the hall John grabbed at his stomach and winced then sighed in pain. Alexander looked at him with concern.

"Are you alright?" he questioned.

"No it's fine...I'll be fine...I just...I've been trapped in there for three days. I haven't eaten or drank anything since. When the place got overrun somehow when someone on the inside got infected I guess...someone split and took what they could of the armory and ran off. I didn't make it out. I tried fighting them off but didn't have enough ammo. I came in here to get more but found that it was all already taken by the people who ran...just...gone. A lot of those...dead got inside and I had to stay in here but so many just kept piling against the door I just tried to wait them out. It's been three days."

Alexander immediately caught on to John's grief and decided he'd try and dig deep into this man to find out what troubled his conscience so much but not now or even today.

Finally they reached the end of the hall and stopped briefly at the door to open it. Alexander pushed the door open revealing the bright sun and blinded John. John opened his eyes to see the outside courtyard of Fort Irwin with a US flag waving high above on a pole in the center of the courtyard. It gave a quiet peaceful feeling.

Alex interrupted saying, "Well I take it you know about the dead and all. You mentioned how the place had been over run and when we got here it wasn't to bad, we managed to clear them all out of the courtyard yesterday through the fence so today I was clearing out the interior looking for weapons."

John took another moment to take it all in and looked around as Alexander watched him intently. Suddenly he gave a concerned look.

"Only problem with this place is the front entrance. It's just some kind of toll both. Those ghouls or dead or whatever you like to call them could easily crawl under or over that. Huh, probably how someone on the inside got infected. Must've been on watch and wasn't paying attention...got bit."

"Dad!"

John stopped at the sound of the yell and turned his head to see a young woman who appeared to be in her mid twenties to early thirties running towards him and Alexander. John turned his head to inquire about the girl but Alexander beat him to it as if reading his mind.

"That's my daughter Nicole."

John then turned back to the young woman and back to Alexander not seeing a bit of resemblance.

"Dad I need to talk to you alone."

" John why don't you go check out A barracks. We're setting up over there and we'll probably be eating in half an hour."

"Yeah, I'll just see how the place has been holding up without me."

"What the hell was that! You just met this guy and now you're sending him off to where we're going to be sleeping unsupervised! This guy could be a rapist or something!" Nicole scolded her father as soon as John left.

"I know how you feel Nicole but if we're going to out last this thing we need to add to our numbers. We can't just make him leave anyway, this was his home first. You don't even have to be nice to him, just give him a chance."

"Nice to know you don't care whether or not your daughter gets raped."

"It not like that Nicole."

"Fine...but I'll be watching him like a hawk and sleeping with one eye open."

By now John had already reached the the flag pole that lay about 15 yards away from the main entrance. John stopped to look up at the large American flag that cast its shadow onto half of the complex. John bent down his head feeling stupid.

"What the hell I'm I even doing...you don't even mean anything anymore..." John then laughed to himself at a thought. "I guess that means I'm out of a job..."

John turned his back to the flag that had once meant so much to him and continued to make his way to A barracks. From where John stood as he walked he could see a single white and red 1990 Ford truck parked outside of the A barracks.

As John walked around the truck he saw himself in the mirror and stopped to take a closer look. He could see thick stubble growing over his face and laughed at the sight. He had known his hair must have been growing the three days he was trapped in that room but didn't realize it had grown so thick so fast.

Ever since he had been in high school he always had fast growing facial hair that he could shave one week and have back the next thicker than before. He had always liked his facial hair but since he had joined the army he always had a stronger need to appear clean shaven and look more professional.

After three days without a shower a shaven face might help him feel cleaner. Still he reluctantly walked through the barracks searching for a razor in the bedside drawers. After going through four drawers he finally found a disposable razor along with a mirror he could hold and use to shave. He then walked outside and sat up on the open tail gate of the truck and began to give himself a dry shave.

After he finished shaving the thick black hair that had covered his face he looked into the mirror to admire his smooth chin and face. He sat a few moments feeling bored and useless and got up to search more of the drawers only too find most of them empty or containing useless items.

After closing the last of the drawers he laid down on the bed next to it. He held up his hand to look at his watch

"Half an hour until we eat." he said out loud.

He estimated it had taken him five minutes to get to A barracks, five minutes to find a razor, five minutes to shave, and five minutes to search all 20 drawers in the barracks. Ten minutes to go.

He laid awake a few minutes before falling asleep. He instantly feel under a nightmare and began trembling in the bed. He woke up to the sound of Alexander's voice next to the bed

"Hey boy! We're here...wake up!"

John's head flew up but he was instantly relaxed to see it was only Alexander.

"Everyone is here John and some food will be ready in a little while."

John sat up still groggy from his short nap.

"Oh sorry, guess I dozed off."

"Don't be I'm sure you needed the rest after three days sleeping on a cold hard floor."

"I'm going to get out for a bit." John replied in an uneasy voice.

"That's fine but be careful we still haven't cleared the whole base."

By the time it was dinner John had been gone twenty minutes and the group had already begun to eat with the sun setting and some began to question his absence. "Where did he say he was going?" Nicole asked her father.

"He didn't say, he just said he needed to get out before we ate."

"I don't like the idea of some stranger sleeping next to us." a man by the name of Matthew Bay interrupted.

"Stop it Matthew!" Alexander interrupted. "See look here he comes."

Everyone turned their head to see John's approaching figure which was holding a bottle and now wearing a hat.

"Look what I got!" John exclaimed excitedly.

He lifted the bottle into the air which was revealed to be a bottle of red wine.

"Where'd you get that?" Nicole asked with surprise.

"I cleared out the officer barracks and killed four ghouls with my knife a-"

"Ghouls?" Matthew asked before John could finish.

"Well I don't know what else to call 'em? Just saying dead gets old after a while."

"Yeah but ghouls just sounds so silly don't you think?"

John just shrugged and continued from where he had left off. "Well, I found this bottle in there along with this!" John said proudly as nodded his head to show a cap with a lieutenant bar on it.

"It was on one of the dead but I figured it would look better on me."

"Well enough chatter let's get some glasses for this wine!" Matthew yelled.

In only a minute he was back outside with five glasses and poured some wine into each and passed them out. As soon as everyone was settled an awkward silence hung out.

"So John...what's your world gone to shit story?" Alexander asked trying to ease John.

"No story."

"Well what about a per-world gone to shit story?"

"No story."

"Really? You've been on this Earth...how old are you?

"Twenty two."

"Really I thought you were at least ten years older with that beard you had on earlier but even without it I took you to be twenty-five. Anyway, you've been on this Earth twenty two years and you have nothing to tell?"

"Nope...nothing."

John's face saddened as well as the mood and it remained quiet a few minutes after that.

"I'm sorry John. I didn't mean to offend you."

"You didn't offend me." John said sitting still looking down into his cup.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine really."

"You're sure I wasn't being insensitive?"

"I said no god damn it!"

"Jesus man calm down! Every thing is fine." Matthew interjected, taken aback by John's out burst.

"Screw you!"

"Are you alright John?" A man named Jeremy Sibyl asked.

"Shut the hell up! I am most certanly not alright! None of you seem to be effected with the fact that we are thoroughly screwed!

John stopped and closed his eyes exhaling before continuing.

"Because of the hell on Earth and our nations inability to protect the people who couldn't protect themselves."

"I don't understand John?" Nicole asked. "What are you even talking about?"

"How can you not understand! Have you not been living through the same world I've been! Let me go through this step by step for you since I am obviously the only one who unfortunately comprehends the situation. Human bites are notoriously infectious. The mouth contains 500 to 1,000 different types of bacteria. Thanks to our global infrastructure the virus spread very quickly through cars, trains, subways, and planes. Before the governments realized what was happening the virus went global. The people who were supposed to help us got sick, that would be the doctors, the police men, the firefighters, even the military like me. When human beings and society panicked that caused a much greater loss of life. In eight to nine days the virus over ran cities the size of New York. From there it only took six days for the rest of the cities to fall. By the time it was realized only destroying the brain would stop them the government started ordering evacuations to places like this. By that time it was too late. Within two weeks, that brings us to today, every city big or small was gone and we had lost the war on this virus. You look at those facts and tell me we're not screwed!"

No one had expected John to lash out like that and everyone sat with their eyes fixed at John as the fire flickered and cracked in the silence of that moment in the night. They all stared at John in shock at this revelation. Could everything this rage filled man just said possibly be true and if it was what hope did they have if such statistics were correct.

John simply sat with his head down and face darkened by the shadow of his hat and ignored their stares. He quietly reached past Matthew and grabbed the bottle of wine.

He would drink himself to sleep that night.

**Sorry if this chapter was too long and boring and seemed kinda rushed but I wanted to get every character into one chapter and also establish John's pessimistic attitude.**

**Thank you so much for reading and reviews would also be appreciated.**


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